Fairgrounds: Juried Craft Market Management Platform

The Idea

Fairgrounds is purpose-built SaaS for craft fair and artisan market organizers who run juried events — managing vendor applications, scoring and acceptance workflows, booth layout assignment, vendor communication, and day-of operations in one tool. It replaces the Google Forms + spreadsheets + PayPal + email chains that most organizers cobble together today.

The Problem You Solve

Running a quality craft market is operationally brutal. Organizers receive hundreds of vendor applications, manually score them across multiple jury members, email acceptances and rejections, collect booth fees via Venmo or PayPal, track who has paid, assign booths on printed grid maps, and manage day-of check-in on clipboards. There is no dedicated tool for this. Generic event platforms (Eventeny, Eventbrite) don't understand the juried market workflow: category caps, scoring rubrics, waitlist management, and the annual vendor relationship that recurring markets depend on.

Core Features (MVP)

• Application portal: Branded public vendor application form (business name, category, photos, artist statement, booth fee)
• Jury dashboard: Review queue with configurable scoring rubric, side-by-side portfolio photo review, one-click accept/waitlist/decline with automated templated emails
• Category caps: Set max vendors per category (e.g. max 8 jewelry makers, max 5 ceramic artists); dashboard shows remaining capacity live
• Booth assignment: Visual grid editor, drag-and-drop vendor placement, instant printable and shareable booth map
• Stripe payments: Booth fee collection with automated payment link on acceptance, refund workflow for declines
• Vendor CRM: Per-vendor history, jury notes, flagged as invite-back, year-over-year return tracking
• Day-of check-in: QR code scan on mobile, live public attendee map showing who is present today

Pricing

• Starter — $79/month: Up to 4 events/year, 150 vendor slots per event, core jury and booth tools
• Organizer — $149/month: Unlimited events, 400 vendor slots, category caps, vendor CRM, attendee map
• Multi-Market — $299/month: Multiple locations and teams, branded attendee experience, priority support

Annual plans at 20% discount.

Tech Stack

• Next.js + TypeScript (front end and SSR)
• Supabase (Postgres, auth, file storage for portfolio photos)
• Stripe Connect (booth fee collection, future co-organizer payouts)
• Resend (automated acceptance, rejection, and reminder emails)
• Vercel (deployment)

How to Build MVP

Weeks 1–2: Auth, core data model (events, vendors, applications), application form builder Weeks 3–4: Jury review UI, accept/decline/waitlist flow, automated email templates Weeks 5–6: Stripe booth fee collection, booth grid editor (fixed grid, not custom shapes for MVP) Weeks 7–8: Day-of QR check-in, public attendee map, vendor history and notes Weeks 9–10: Polish, onboard 3 organizers for free, gather feedback before charging

How to Get First Customers

1. Direct outreach: Join craft market organizer Facebook groups and Instagram communities. Post as someone who has vended at markets and built a tool to solve the pain they talk about constantly.
2. Pottery network: Use existing craft community connections to get warm introductions to market organizers — he knows people who know organizers.
3. Content marketing: Write "How I manage 200 vendor applications without losing my mind" targeting the organizer groups where these people actually spend time.
4. Event directories: Reach out to organizers listed on local arts council websites, downtown business association event pages, and craft fair aggregator directories.
5. Free first season: Offer first event season free in exchange for a detailed testimonial and two referrals.

Revenue Math

• 20 Starter customers × $79 = $1,580/month
• 30 Organizer customers × $149 = $4,470/month
• 15 Multi-Market customers × $299 = $4,485/month
• Total: ~$10,535/month at roughly 65 paying customers

There are an estimated 30,000–50,000 craft fairs and artisan markets across the US. Capturing 0.15% of that market hits the revenue target. The pricing is trivially justified: replacing 10 hours of spreadsheet and email work per month at any reasonable hourly rate exceeds the monthly subscription cost.

Why This Is Different

Generic event tools are not built around the jury workflow. Category caps, scoring rubric UI, jury member collaboration, and the vendor CRM for multi-year relationships are unique to this use case. Craft market organizers are deeply underserved — small SaaS players rarely target them because the TAM looks small until you count the actual number of recurring seasonal markets. The craft-specific domain knowledge — understanding what "juried" means, knowing the vendor relationship lifecycle, speaking the language of these communities — creates positioning that a generic software company cannot fake.

Path to Quitting Day Job

• Months 1–3: Build MVP, 5–10 free beta organizers running their spring or fall events
• Months 4–6: Convert to paid, reach $2,000–$3,000 MRR
• Months 7–9: SEO, direct outreach, craft market association sponsorships, reach $6,000–$8,000 MRR
• Months 10–12: $10,000+ MRR, launch multi-market tier, offer annual contracts
• Year 2: Expand to adjacent categories (art walks, food truck festivals, holiday markets), build enterprise tier for downtown improvement districts and museum shops running seasonal markets

Risks & Mitigations

• Volunteer-run markets with no budget: Many small markets are run by unpaid community volunteers. Mitigate: target commercial operators first — museum shops, downtown business improvement districts, established annual fairs with paid coordinators.
• Seasonal churn: Event management tools have seasonal demand. Mitigate: annual plans lock in revenue; off-season value from CRM (invite returning vendors, accept early applications, plan next event layout).
• Eventeny already exists: They serve this general space but for broad event types. Mitigate: go deep on the juried craft market workflow they treat as an edge case; win on niche positioning and faster product iteration for a specific audience.

Why This Works for You Specifically

You have been on the vendor side of craft markets. You have experienced the frustration of unclear application processes, confirmation emails that never arrive, and booth assignments handed out the morning of the event. That lived experience is genuine distribution advantage: you know exactly which Facebook groups and Instagram accounts these organizers follow, what terminology they use, what their biggest pain is before you write a line of code. Your technical stack — Next.js, Supabase, Stripe — maps directly to every product requirement. No other founder targeting this niche has both the craft community credibility to build trust quickly and the engineering depth to ship a complete, polished product fast.

First Action

Find three active craft market organizers in local Facebook groups or on Instagram and send a direct message: "I'm a software engineer who also vends at craft markets — I'm building a tool to replace the Google Forms, spreadsheet, and PayPal workflow for juried markets. Would you spend 20 minutes telling me about how you currently manage applications and booth assignments?" Book the calls, validate the workflow in detail, and lock in first beta users before writing a line of code.